This invention pertains generally to digital imaging devices and the use of drivers, and more particularly to the use of a paperless command in testing driver functionality.
Digital imaging devices (“DID”) are complex machines that require administration attention. DIDs suitably include devices such as printers, fax machines, scanners, copiers, multi-functional peripherals (“MFPs”), and other like peripheral devices. In addition, DIDs are often connected to a network. In order to manage most DIDs on a network, administrators make use of either a Common Information Model (“CIM”) or a Simple Networking Management Protocol (“SNMP”). Both architectures provide an almost universal and platform independent mechanism to access and interface with digital imaging devices. For each DID, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (“OEM”) creates a description of device management information relating to CIM and SNMP networks. Such management information generally includes textual binary descriptors that describe the nature of the device, the management capabilities of the device, the names of the objects native to the device, the types of actions the device can perform, etc. Value-added resellers (“VAR”), OEMs, or vendors then utilize the device management information to access and control the DIDs and to create software for managing the DIDs. In particular, device drivers are developed.
Device drivers are pieces of software that enable computers to communicate with peripheral devices. In doing so, they are responsible for accessing hardware registers of the device. Device drivers often form part of the lowest level of an operating system (“OS”) kernel, with which they are linked when the kernel is built. OS also accept loadable device drivers that can be installed after the OS is running.
As OS and DID change, device drivers must often be changed to accommodate a change in technology. As new device drivers are created, designers must verify the quality of the drivers. In the past, this was accomplished by creating a test job having known results and sending it to a DID operating with the new driver. If the DID is a MFP, printer, fax machine or the like, the DID suitably outputs or prints the test job, and the printed output is then compared to a control printed test job. However, this process is extraordinarily time-consuming and difficult because adequately testing DID drivers often requires that the test jobs be thousands of pages. In addition, comparing two printed pages is a difficult task, as the pages may contain visually imperceptible differences.